A doctor in the central Vietnamese province of Ha Tinh says at least 21 people died during anti-China riots there yesterday.
The doctor said five of the victims were Vietnamese workers and the others Chinese. Rioters had attacked premises on industrial parks in the south of the country but no deaths were reported, RTHK reports.
Anti-Chinese sentiment has been running high in Vietnam since Beijing deployed an oil rig in disputed waters in the South China Sea on May 1.
Earlier this week, mobs burned and looted scores of foreign-owned factories in southern Vietnam near Ho Chi Minh City, believing they were Chinese-run. However, many were actually Taiwanese or South Korean businesses.